Improvement in damper actions for automatic musical instruments



n. IMHOF. Damper-Actions for Autumatic Musical instruments.

N0.|57,754, Patented nec,15,1s74.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DANIEL IMEOF, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN DAMPER ACTIONS FOR AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 157,?54, dated December15, 1874; application filed September 11, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL Timon, of No. 547 Oxford Street, London, inthe county ofMiddleseX, England, have invented an Improvement inAutomatic Musical Instruments; and do hereby declare that the followingdescription, taken in connection with the accompanying sheet of drawingshereinafter referred to, forms a full and exact specification of thesame, wherein I have set forth the nature and principles of my saidimprovement, by which my invention may be distinguished from others of asimilar class, together with such parts as I claim and desire to secureby Letters Patent-that is to say:

My invention relates to means of damping or sustaining the notesproduced by the strokes on strings, bells, springs, and other soundingbodies of hammers worked automatically by pegs or projections on arevolving barrel or other traveling-surface; and in order that myinvention may be understood, I will refer to the accompanying sheet ofdrawings, showing its application to an automatic stringed instrument.

Figure 1 represents a side view of one of the strings with its hammerand damper worked by pegs on a revolving barrel, part of the barrel,sound-board, and framing of the instrument being shown in section. Fig.2 represents a back view of the hammer and damper, the soun d-boardbeing supposed to be removed.

B is a portion of the cylindrical barrel, which is made to revolve inthe direction of the arrow, so that a peg, P, upon it, as it passesunder or past the inclined nose of the hammerlever H, causes thehammer-head H to be withdrawn from the string, and when the peg haspassed the nose of the hammer-lever a spring, S, impels the hammer-headagainst the string, and causes it to sound.

So far the construction and operation of the parts are of ordinary andknown kind, and form no part of my invention.

D is a damper, also of ordinary construction, mounted and stopped on aframe, F, which frame may be pivoted at f,and may be caused to rock onits pivots so as to withdraw all. the dampers from the strings, according to the mode usually adopted in piano- 'Iortes.

The novel construction and arrangement for operating the damper D by themovement of the barrel B is as follows: The damper-rod R is connectedwith an adjusting-nut to one arm of a bell-crank lever, L, mounted bythe side of the hammer-lever H on the same axis. The other arm of thelever L is turned a little to one side, at I, so as to present a nose inthe same plane with and immediately behind or next to the nose of thehammer-lever. The lever L rests in a notch in the side of thehammerlever H, on the lower shoulder thereof, a. VVhena peg, P, of thebarrel passes the nose of the hammer-lever, so as to raise the hammerfrom the string, the shoulder a of the notch in the hammer-lever, acting011 the lever L, raises the rod R and withdraws the damper D from thestring. The peg P having passed the nose of the hammer-lever, the hammeris discharged, striking the string; but the same peg P having now comeunder the nose Z of the damper-lever, as shown in Fig. l, keeps up thedamper until the peg has passed that nose, whereupon the damper againfalls against the string and stops its vibration. Thus, after the strokeof the hammer on the string, the sound of the latter is sustained, whilethe peg P passes the nose 1 of the damper-lever. When it is desired thata note should be sustained for a longer period, I make the peg of thekind shown at P, consisting of a simple peg, p, succeeded by a peg, p,of staple form, with sloping terminations. The peg p raises the hammerand discharges it, as already described, afterward sustaining the damperwhile it passes the nose Z, but before the peg 1) has cleared the saidnose 1 the hammer is again lifted by the staple p, the shoulder of thenotch in the hammer-lever keeping the damper up until the staple-peg 19passes the noses of both the hammer and the damper levers. The rear ofthe staple-peg 19 being sloped oh, the hammer, instead of beingdischarged suddenly from it so as to strike the string, is allowed bythe passage of the sloped portion to move gradually toward the stringwithout striking it.

Although in the drawings I have shown the damping apparatus applied to astring, it is obvious that a similar construction and arrangement areapplicable when soundingi, bodies other than strings, such as bells orsprings, are employed. It may also be readily understood that a similarconstruction and arrangement are applicable when the acting pegs,instead of being on a revolving barrel, are on a plane or othertraveling surface.

Having thus described the nature of my said invention, and the bestmeans I know of carrying it out in practice, I claim-- 1. Thecombination of the damper-lever L with the hammer-lever H of anautomatic musical instrument, so that when the hammer is raised tostrike the damper is also raised, and after the hammer has struck thedamper is for a time held off by the peg, which raises the hammer,permitting the struck note to sound, substantially as herein described.

DANIEL IMHOF.

Witnesses:

OLIVER IMRAY, J NO. P. M. MILLARD.

